BBQ (Block Bad Queries) is a simple script that protects your website against malicious URL requests. BBQ checks all incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval( and base64_. The plugin is ultra minimal, so there are no options to configure which strings are blocked or allowed — it’s basically a “set-it-and-forget-it” type plugin. To give the plugin more flexibility, here are two plugins that enable you to whitelist or blacklist your own custom strings. Read more »

SES Pro is a premium email newsletter plugin for WordPress. It is 100% shortcode-based with Ajax-powered signup forms that can be displayed anywhere. There are no monthly fees or limits on the number of subscribers, how many emails you can send, or anything else. It’s just a lightweight yet full-featured email-signup plugin that’s super-easy to use. Read more »

After months of deleopment and a low-key “soft-launch”, I’m pleased to announce my first premium WordPress plugin, USP Pro, the supercharged version of my free WP plugin, User Submitted Posts. USP Pro enables you to create and customize infinitely many front-end forms and display them anywhere on your WordPress-powered site. Read more »

It may not seem like it, but I’ve been super busy updating books, plugins, and websites with all sorts of new goodness. I just finished updating all of my WordPress plugins that are hosted at the WP Plugin Directory. Here is a complete list: Read more »

Simple Basic Contact Form is a clean, secure, plug-n-play contact form for WordPress. Minimal yet flexible, SBCF delivers clean code, solid performance, and ease of use. No frills, no gimmicks, just a straight-up contact form that’s easy to set up and style for any theme. For a contact form with more options and features, check out Contact Coldform, or continue reading to learn more about Simple Basic Contact Form. Read more »

Here is a list of all CSS hooks available for the User Submitted Posts submission form. If you notice any errors or if I’ve missed anything, please let me know with a comment or by sending an email via my contact form. Thanks! Read more »

Simple Ajax Chat displays a fully customizable Ajax-powered chat box anywhere on your site. SAC makes it easy for your visitors to chat with each other on your website. There already are a number of decent chat plugins, but I wanted one that is simple yet fully customizable with all the features AND outputs clean HTML markup for easy styling. Simple Ajax Chat is based on Jalenack’s Wordspew (aka AJAX Shoutbox), which I’ve been using on my sites since the plugin was released back in 2005 (ish). Wordspew works great even today, but it hasn’t been updated in seven years, […] Read more »

Show Support Ribbon displays a customizable “show support” ribbon, banner, or badge on your site. Show support for your favorite cause, event, charity, political event, or anything else that’s awesome. Show Support Ribbon includes four built-in ribbon styles and makes it easy to customize with your own CSS. Read more »

Simple Blog Stats is a free WordPress plugin that provides a wealth of shortcodes and tags to display a variety of unique statistics about your site. Stats about your blog include total number of categories, comments, posts, users, tags, and more. SBS also displays recent comments and recent posts in posts, pages, and anywhere in your theme. Read more »

Block Bad Queries (BBQ) is a simple script that protects your website against malicious URL requests. BBQ checks all incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval(, base64_, and excessively long request-strings. This is a simple yet solid solution that works great for sites where .htaccess is not available. The BBQ script is available as a plugin for WordPress or standalone script for any PHP-powered website. Read more »

Simple Custom Content is a free WordPress plugin that makes it easy to add custom content to your posts and feeds. SCS enables you to add custom content to all of your posts and all of your feeds, and provides several shortcodes for adding custom content in specific posts, pages, and just about anywhere. Read more »

In the Simple Feed Stats plugin, Open Tracking enables you to track any web page or feed anywhere on the Web. This is done by using the open-tracking URL as the src for any <img /> tag. The SFS plugin then collects and displays the data, and provides shortcodes and template tags to display your feed stats anywhere on your site. In this post, we’ll see how to implement Open Tracking, walk through some examples, and glean a few tips along the way. Read more »

When adding content to your sidebar, it’s nice to be able to output clean, well-formatted markup. There are several ways to do this, including adding HTML directly in the theme template, installing a plugin, or simply using a widget. Widgets provide a great way of customizing sidebars and other widgetized areas, but as you may have seen in the source-code, the HTML is treated with all sorts of additional attributes, elements, and classes. Sometimes, you just need a widget that outputs exactly what you tell it to, without adding or changing anything. Read more »

Update (2012/11/08): Well the elections are over and Ron Paul was not elected to be the next president of the United States. Deeper implications aside, the Ron Paul 2012 plugin is now discontinued. If you’re looking for a WordPress plugin to display a banner, button, or badge on your website, check out my new plugin Show Support Ribbon. I wanted to show support for Ron Paul on my WordPress website with a simple badge or button. Surprised at not finding any plugins for Ron Paul in the Directory, I decided to be the first. You can grab it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ron-paul-2012/ […] Read more »

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Perishable Press is the work of Jeff Starr, professional developer, designer, author, and publisher with over 10 years of experience. Check out some of Jeff's books and projects, follow on Twitter, or learn more »

Fun fact: Perishable Press has been online since 2005, and now features over 700 articles and more than 11,000 comments. More stats »